Counsel Sousa drafts ordinance to ban synthetic drugs in Fall River

Sunday

Aug 19, 2012 at 12:01 AMAug 19, 2012 at 7:04 PM

The ordinance Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Sousa drafted bans a wide range of synthetic stimulants being sold in stores as ordinary products like bath salts and potpourri that producing erratic behavior, hallucinations and public health concerns, Mayor Will Flanagan said.

He’s notified City Council President Linda Pereira and heads of the Board of Health and Licensing Board of the impact he hopes this local law would have.

Michael Holtzman

The ordinance Corporation Counsel Elizabeth Sousa drafted bans a wide range of synthetic stimulants being sold in stores as ordinary products like bath salts and potpourri that producing erratic behavior, hallucinations and public health concerns, Mayor Will Flanagan said.

He’s notified City Council President Linda Pereira and heads of the Board of Health and Licensing Board of the impact he hopes this local law would have.

Sousa said she drafted the ordinance based on federal law passed in July to further the substance abuse act and a law passed in Missouri, one of 45 states outlawing synthetic marijuana created by chemically spraying various herbs and products and synthetic bath salts treated with certain chemicals.

She added a clause in her draft law she called a “catch-all” phrase that, in addition to the lengthy list of banned chemical products, would prohibit from sale other items that are “similar to a controlled substance or imitation controlled substance.”

The ordinance is deigned to regulate the “possession, distribution and display” of these products that can have “serious physical effects, including hospitalization and death, when ingested, inhaled or otherwise introduced into the human body,” it says.

The law is particularly aimed at stores selling the product that have been unwilling to cease carrying them for fear of losing business, local officials said.

The civil fine for violating the law would be the maximum the city can impose, $300. It would apply to both those caught using the products and those selling and displaying them.

Flanagan said the draft he asked Pereira to place before the City Council and its ordinance committee makes police the enforcement agency for violations and allows them to bring those violations to licensing authorities.

Therefore, food licensing required by stores from the Board of Health and Licensing Board could be jeopardized, Flanagan said.

About half of the five-page law lists the various chemical compounds that make up the synthetic and chemically treated products.

The law’s requirements also say enforcement would apply to them regardless of whether they are described as “tobacco, herbs, incense, spice, bath salts, plant food… (and) whether the substance is marketed for the purpose of being smoked or ingested.”

Flanagan said he did not know how the City Council would react to his proposed law. Pereira was not immediately available for comment.